We’re still close.He moves around me in the hall of mirrors, his hand sliding along my torso until my back is to his chest and our fronts are to one of the many reflective surfaces.Angle upon angle, I can see us.The too-sexy-for-his-own-good Ford with his arms wrapped around the girl-next-door-dental-assistant June.It’s a stark contrast.The height difference.The tan to pale skin.The strong muscular build to supple curves.The auras.
I peek up at him over my shoulder.He grabs my chin, shifting my attention back to the many mirrors.
Dragging his hand along my throat, he murmurs, “Okay, June Bug.Let’s play a game.”
“Ford.”
“A hypothetical game,” he returns.“Humor me.”His fingers drag along my outer breast, making my stomach tighten.“If we opened the haunted house event where girls could sign up to hide, and guys could sign up to find said girls and do what they want with them if they were found…would you sign up as a spectator or a participant?”
“If I knew others were watching?”I shake my head, attempting to focus on our conversation instead of his hand trailing lower and lower on my body.“No to both.”
“Are you kidding?”
“I don’t know?”A shiver races down my spine.“No?”
“Why?”
“Because it’s private.”
“Yeah, no, totally get that,” he says, though I don’t miss the humor in his tone.
It’s enough to snap me out of my lust-induced trance, and I purse my lips.“Excuse me, sir, are you making fun of me?”
Heat flashes across his expression.“I like it when you call me sir.”
I snort, shaking my head.“I’m serious.I want to know.Is there something wrong with looking at intimacy as something that can still be a turn-on when it’s private?”
“You saying you’re turned on right now?You know, since we’re in private?”
I give him a pointed look.
Caving, he answers, “No, June Bug.Nothing is wrong with privacy.”
“Then, why are you teasing me?”
“Guess you and I have different perspectives,” he offers.
“Such as?”
“It’s complicated.”
I twist in his arms to face him.“Tell me.”
“Well, for me, sex has always been a physical, and sometimes mechanical," he adds dryly, “act.”
“Mechanical,” I repeat.
“Only the worst interactions.”
“Oh, yeah, that’s totally a turn-on,” I tease.
“Guess when you’re hollow like me, you gotta take the good with the bad.”
My attention bounces around his face as I take him in.The truth is, his calloused words make me almost…sad.I rub my lips together, searching for an additional second to wrap my head around it.What it would be like.To not know love.Because clearly, that’s where this stems from.Sure, he didn’t put it that way, but it’s easy to read between the lines.He looks at sex as something purely physical because he’s never connected with someone emotionally.Or if he has, he hasn’t realized it.My heart twists at the recognition.The truth in all its messy glory.“So, you’re hollow because you look at sex as a way to get off, and I’m innocent because I look at sex as a private act, and maybe even an intimate one,” I reply.“Is that right?”
“Nothing wrong with it,” he returns.“I actually like that about you.The way you see things.”Nudging my chin up, he rasps, “That you believe there’s still good in the world.”He kisses me again, and I let him, savoring the feel of his mouth on mine.One day.One day, I’ll convince him otherwise.That sex can be more than physical or mechanical.More than a means to an end.It can be…it can be beautiful.I know it can because I’ve felt it with Ford.And a not-so-small part of me believes he’s felt it with me, even if he’s too scared to admit it yet.And most importantly, maybe I can make him realize he isn’t hollow.That there’s a big, fat caring heart in there.That being said, just because I have a different view of sex than Ford doesn’t mean I can’t see the appeal of where he’s going with this.
Ending the kiss, I whisper, “Okay, Ford.Let’s play your hypothetical game.”
